My Only Love, Sprung From My Only Hate
by boo boo fishlake
Summary: 7th year. War is over. In an effort to mend the still-present rift between pureblooded and muggle-bornhalfblooded students, and teach the students a valuble lesson, Dumbledore decides to put on 'Romeo and Juliet', a classic tragedy about rifts (feuds) bet
1. First Day Back

My Only Love, Sprung From My Only Hate

By: booboofishlake

Summary: It is the Golden Trio's final year at Hogwarts. The war against Voldemort is over. The Death Eater's have been rounded up and imprisoned, including half of the parents of the Slytherin House. However, the elitist views of some of the pureblooded population still exist, and thusly, so does the rift between the purebloods and the muggle-borns/halfbloods. Dumbledore, in a stroke of genius, decides that the best way to start mending that rift in his school is to give the students an example of the damage such a rift between groups could do. What example of a feud causing tragedy is better than _Romeo and Juliet_? As the school immerses itself in the play, performed by the newly founded Club of Dramatic Arts, our favorite Gryffindor know-it-all and our favorite Slytherin bad boy find themselves thrust into the wild and unpredictable world of theatre as the leads of the play, as well as into a romantic adventure they'll never forget.

_Chapter One: The First Day Back_

Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasly stared at the florescent poster tacked to the notice board in the Head common room.

_The Club of Dramatic Arts will be having open auditions this Friday immediately following dinner for the upcoming production of Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet. _All of those interested are suggested to audition, extra credit will be given to those who make the play, and also to those who participate in the construction of the sets. See the Heads of your respective Houses if you have any questions. Break a leg!_

"Break a leg? Why on Earth would they want you to break a leg?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"It's something muggles say. It means, 'good luck'," Hermione explained as she quickly read over the poster again. "Since when does Hogwarts have a Club of Dramatic Arts?"

"No idea," Ginny told her. "Come on. We still have to drop off my stuff at the Gryffindor tower before we head to the Great Hall for dinner."

Hermione nodded and, making her way over to a large oak door with, _Hermione_, inscribed in the richly colored wood, tapped her wand on the enchanted lock. The lock obliged and the door swung open, revealing Hermione's new living quarters. Dumping her half of Hermione's luggage unceremoniously on the king size bed against the wall adjacent to the door, Ginny gazed around the room and whistled.

"Good Lord, Hermione, it's huge." It was true. The room was easily the size of dorms the other students were made to share. It was decorated lavishly in scarlet and gold, from the matching comforter and bed canopy, to the lounge couch in one corner of the room. A full bathroom, complete with a Jacuzzi bathtub, over which Ginny squealed in envy, was located opposite of the bed.

But the thing that Hermione fell in love with about her room was not the king-sized canopy bed or the Jacuzzi bathtub. It was the small balcony across the room, opposite the door. French doors opened on the balcony, which couldn't have been more than six or seven feet across, and about five feet wide. The balcony itself over looked the lake that was shimmering in the evening light.

"You are so lucky," Ginny gushed, joining Hermione on the balcony. "Your room is incredible!"

Hermione smiled. "It's pretty wonderful, isn't it?" Then with a grimace she added, "Everything about this whole Head Girl deal _would_ be wonderful, if only Malfoy wasn't Head Boy…" She thought back to her arrival on the Hogwarts Express a few hours earlier…

_Flashback_

"Hey, here's an empty one!" Ron Weasly gestured excitedly to an empty compartment. His best friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and his sister, Ginny, sighed in visible relief. It was getting nearly impossible to find an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express anymore.

"Here," Hermione handed her luggage to her friends as they piled into the compartment. "I have a quick meeting with the Head boy in the Head's car. It won't take long. Save my seat."

"As if we wouldn't," Ginny pointed out with a grin. Harry and Ron chuckled, amused. Hermione returned the grin and hurried off toward the Head's car.

_I wonder who Dumbledore chose for Head Boy_, Hermione thought as she made her way through the throngs of students clamoring for seats. She made it to the Head's car in a relatively short amount of time. She pushed open the door to the car and found herself face to face with none other than:

"Malfoy! You're Head Boy!"

Draco Malfoy was not as surprised to see Hermione Granger as she evidently was to see him. His gaze traveled up her body before unconcernedly meeting hers. Well, Hermione had become unquestionably easy on the eyes. Her formerly bushy mess of hair had grown considerably longer, nearly reaching her waist. Instead of the frizz factory it had been her hair no fell in gentle ringlets that set off her willowy frame. And if Hermione had been lacking anywhere in the upper torso region previously, it seemed the—how could one put it?—now her cup certainly overfloweth. Another guy might have called her hot, but for Draco Malfoy, "hot" and "Hermione Granger didn't belong in the same sentence. Still…

"It may surprise you, Granger," Draco told her in that incredibly sexy drawl of his. "But you are not the only exceptionally bright student in Hogwarts. IfImay point out, you have never once gotten one mark higher than mein Potions."

"One class," Hermione retorted automatically. "That the Head of your House teaches." It was an ever present thorn in Hermione's side that, in the one class that she did not hold the highest grade, Draco was the one that did.

Draco smirked. "Just keep telling yourself that, Granger."

Hermione did not answer and the two glared at each other for a long moment, neither one speaking. Finally she broke the silence.

"Are we going to discuss anything of real importance, or should I just save myself the trouble and march right back out of that door?"

"I don't see why we should." After all," he reminded her, the smirk still on his lips, "we've got all year, don't we?"

_End Flashback_

Ginny grinned wickedly. "I don't know, 'Mione," she mused, using Hermione's nickname. "Draco's gotten pretty…" She let the sentence hang as her grin widened.

"Pretty what? Besides full of himself, I mean."

"He's always been full of himself," Ginny pointed out to her friend. "Nope, Draco Malfoy has gotten _hot_!"

"Ginny!"

"You know it's true," Ginny teased. And it was. Draco had filled out very, _very_ nicely since fifth year, two years ago. Somehow, he had gone from whiney little twerp to a six-foot something, muscular hottie. There was no denying that Draco Malfoy was certainly not the eyesore he used to be, And as if the new, incredibly hot Draco wasn't good enough for the female population of Hogwarts, he had miraculously grown up. Hermione suspected the arrest and imprisonment of his father and the end of the Second Great War, as the war with Voldemort was christened, was the cause behind Draco's newfound maturity. It wasn't like he was suddenly warmly embracing the Golden Trio or handing out sweets to the first year or any thing, but overall, Draco had become a generally nice guy—except to Hermione and her friends, of course.

"Come on, Gin," Hermione said, dismissing the subject. "Let's drop of your stuff and get down to the Great Hall. I don't want to miss the sorting."


	2. Cast List

My Only Love, Sprung From My Only Hate

By: booboofishlake

_Chapter Two: Cast List_

For the next week, all that was on anybody's mind was the upcoming auditions. A person couldn't start a conversation without mention of the auditions sneaking in. Truth be told, it was starting to give Draco a headache. He figured he might as well audition. You don't know if you like something until you try it, right? Besides, know-it-all Granger was going to audition (this he heard from Pansy, who heard it from Parvati, who heard it from Lavender, who heard it from Ginny. Ain't the school grapevines just lovely?). As if he was going to give Granger another opportunity to best him. Who knew? He might even enjoy it.

Friday was on them before the students knew it. All of those serious about auditioning were nervous wrecks, including Draco himself, though he was careful not to show it. The auditions went well and McGonagall, who had, er, volunteered to direct the play had a heck of a time deciding in who would be playing whom. A few of the partswere obvious, but some made her wonder why she had agreed to direct the bloody play.

After the auditions, the auditioners went back to their respective houses to fret in peace, before going to sleep in short order. The next day the cast list would be posted.

"Hermione! Hermione, wake up!" Hermione opened her eyes groggily to see her auburn-haired best friend bouncing at the foot of her bed. What the heck was Ginny doing in her room at nine in the morning? On a Saturday, no less?

"Wha-" Hermione began, but Ginny cut her off.

"The list, 'Mione, the cast list. It's been posted!"

"And you figured that I couldn't just wake up and go to the notice board in my own common room to look for the cast list because…?"

"'Cause, McGonagall didn't post it in the Head common room," Ginny explained. "She must have forgotten."

_Not likely_, Hermione thought. _I wonder why she didn't post it in the Head common room. Probably figured just Malfoy and I weren't worth the trouble_. She sat up in bed and asked Ginny, "So, did you make it?"

"Mm-hm. I stand before you as the one and only Lady Capulet."

"That's great, Gin," Hermione congratulated her. But even as she congratulated Ginny, she could tell that there was something Ginny wasn't telling her. "What—never mind, don't tell me. I want to find out myself." She jumped out of bed and threw on a robe over the flannel pajama pants and tank top she'd worn to bed. "It's posted in the Gryffindor common room, right?"

By the time the two teens had made their way to the Gryffindor common room, a sizable crowd had gathered and was buzzing around the notice board. Everyone on the entire tower was probably there. As Hermione arrived, the crowd suddenly fell quieter and began to thin as people made way for her.

Hermione noticed the reproachful looks on the faces of her fellow Gryffindors as she approached the notice board. "What is up with…" she began, but her voice trailed off as her gaze found the cast list posted on the board.

There at the top of the cast list, read two names next to two characters—Draco Malfoy as Romeo Montague and Hermione Granger as Juliet Capulet.

Hermione stared at the cast list in utter disbelief. She had to be hallucinating. There was no possible was McGonagall could have actually cast the most infamous pair of loathed enemies in Hogwarts as the characters of the most famous lovers in history.

Suddenly Harry was at her side. "That's pretty awful, huh?" He offered. "But still, congratulations, Hermione."

"Awful doesn't even begin to cover it, Harry," Hermione snapped, still in disbelief. "I can't do this. I _won't_ do this. I quit." She began, before her eyes landed on a note added to the bottom of the cast list.

_Thank you to all that auditioned. All of you who have made the play, you have made a commitment. You mad this commitment when you decided to attend auditions. An extensive amount of thought and consideration was put into the casting. Therefore, no one will be permitted to drop out of the play, except, of course, under extenuating circumstances. The first rehearsal will be held tonight. All following rehearsals will be held on Sunday evenings, so as not to interfere with schoolwork and other practices. Congratulations, and I expect to see all of you tonight._

"No way out," Seamus Finnigan pointed out the obvious. He was reasonably happy, seeing as he had gotten casted as Mercutio, Romeo's friend. Even if Malfoy was Romeo, the part of Mercutio was still pretty good.

"Besides, "Mione, I've never known you to turn down a challenge before," Ron quipped. Neither he nor Harry had auditioned, seeing as they would be too busy with Quidditch.

_That's all_, Hermione thought somewhat bitterly. _It's a bloody challenge, alright._

On his side of the school, still in his bed, Draco was awoken by Blaise Zambini, his closest friend. "You'd better have an extremely good reason for waking me up at this ungodly hour," he growled before Blaise shoved the cast list he had stolen from the Slytherin common room into his face. Draco read the first two names on the list and sat bolt straight up in bed. "Holy crap!"

Only he didn'tsay crap.

_For your pleasure, dear reader, I have enclosed a complete cast list of the, as I feel, more important characters below. I apologized for the predominantly Gryffindor population of the cast, but I had to work with what I could dig up, and I hope the castings are not to terribly out there._

Romeo Montague—Draco Malfoy

Juliet Capulet—Hermione Granger

Lord Montague—Gregory Goyle

Lady Montague—Pansy Parkinson

Lord Capulet—Neville Longbottom

Lady Capulet—Ginny Weasly

Benvolio—Ernie Macmillian

Mercutio—Seamus Finnigan

Tybalt—Blaise Zambini

Prince Escalus—Justin Finch-Fletchly

Friar Lawrence—Owen Cauldwell

Friar John—Terry Boot

Count Paris—Stewart Ackley

A/N: Well there you have it, dear readers. I know it's sort of zipping along at this point, but what can I say? The best is (always) yet to come. Review, review, review, my little cherubs. Don't be shy; every author likes to know when (and if) she's appreciated. Your reviews determine how quickly I update this.


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